Mexcala kabondo

Mexcala kabondo is a jumping spider that was first described by the Polish arachnologist Wanda Wesołowska in 2009, one of over 500 species she identified during her career.{{cite web|author=World Spider Catalog|year=2017|title=Mexcala kabondo Wesolowska, 2009|website=World Spider Catalog|publisher=Natural History Museum|place=Bern|url=http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/species/30839|version=18.0|accessdate=9 June 2017}}{{sfn|Wiśniewski|2020|page=6}} She allocated the species to the genus Mexcala, first raised by George and Elizabeth Peckham in 1902 as part of a thorough revision of the genus.{{sfn|Wiśniewski|2020|page=6}}{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=149}} The genus was a member of the tribe Heliophaninae alongside Pseudicius and Cosmophasis, which was absorbed into Chrysillini by Wayne Maddison in 2015.{{sfn|Maddison|Bodner|Needham|2008|page=57}}{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=252}} The tribe is a member of the clade Saltafresia within the subfamily Salticoida.{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=278}} A year later, in 2016, Jerzy Prószyński allocated the genus to the Heliophanines group of genera, which was named after the genus Heliophanus. The genera share characteristics, including having a rather uniform, mainly dark appearance.{{sfn|Prószyński|2017|page=29}} The species itself has a name that is derived from Kabondo dianda, the name of the town {{convert|18|km}} away from the place where the first example was collected.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|pages=165, 166}}

Like all Mexcala spiders, the species is slender and medium-sized.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=152}} The female has a brown to blackish carapace that range from {{convert|3.0|to|3.3|mm|in|abbr=on}} long. It has small white scales on its thorax, black mouthparts and a black sternum. The abdomen is between {{convert|4.0|and|5.3|mm|in|abbr=on}} long and blackish with a whitish line to the front, three black bands in the middle and four orange patches to the rear. It has thin brown legs. The epigyne is large with two shallow depressions. The copulatory openings lead to very sclerotized seminal ducts that sit next to each other and receptacles that sit on top of each other. This internal structure is the most distinguishing feature of the species and enables it to be differentiated from others in the genus.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=166}} The male has not been described.

Like many jumping spiders, Wesołowska and Tamás Szűts noted that Mexcala spiders mimic ants.{{sfn|Wesołowska|Szűts|2001|page=523}} Some are particularly similar to members of the Camponotus genus. However, they mainly resemble Mutillidae, species of wasp that have ant-like characteristics. The species particularly resembles the female, which is wingless, in its body proportions.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=152}}

The spider is typical of the genus.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=166}} It lives amongst the species of ant that it mimics, and preys upon.{{sfn|Pekár|Haddad|2011|page=133}}{{sfn|Pekár|Petráková Dušátková|Haddad|2020|page=6}} Like other jumping spiders, it is mainly a diurnal hunter that uses its good eyesight to spot its prey.{{sfn|Richman|Jackson|1992|page=33}} It attacks from the front and captures its prey behind the head.{{sfn|Pekár|Petráková Dušátková|Haddad|2020|page=5}} The chelicerae have short thick spines on them which may be used for digging holes to act as underground hiding places.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=153}} It uses visual displays during courtship and transmits vibratory signals through silk to communicate to other spiders.{{sfn|Richman|Jackson|1992|page=34}}

Mexcala spiders can be found across Africa and the Arabian peninsula.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=153}} Mexcala kabondo lives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi and Tanzania. The species was first discovered near Kabondo in Congo, the holotype being collected in 1958. It was also identified in other parts of the country, including Mpala on the edge of Lake Tanganyika, Kasongo and Kisangani. The first example found in Tanzania was seen in 1959 near Kasoge Camp on Lake Tanganyika and then in Malawi in 1972 near Chitipa at an altitude of {{convert|1432|m|ft|abbr=on}} above sea level.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=165}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite journal | last=Maddison | first=Wayne P. |title=A phylogenetic classification of jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=The Journal of Arachnology | year= 2015 | volume=43 | number=3 | pages=231–292 | doi=10.1636/arac-43-03-231-292|s2cid=85680279 | author-link=Wayne Maddison}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Maddison | first1=Wayne P. | last2=Bodner| first2=Melissa R. | last3=Needham | first3=Karen M. | year=2008 | title=Salticid spider phylogeny revisited, with the discovery of a large Australasian clade (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=Zootaxa | volume=1893| pages=49–64 | doi=10.11646/zootaxa.1893.1.3}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Pekár | first1=Stano | last2=Haddad | first2=Charles | title=Trophic Strategy of Ant-Eating Mexcala Elegans (Araneae: Salticidae): Looking for Evidence of Evolution of Prey-Specialization | journal=The Journal of Arachnology | volume=39 | number=1 | year=2011 | pages=133–38 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/23048790 | doi=10.1636/Hi10-56.1| jstor=23048790 | s2cid=54702906 }}
• {{cite journal | last1=Pekár | first1=Stano | last2=Petráková Dušátková | first2=Lenka | last3=Haddad | first3=Charles R. | year=2020 | title=No ontogenetic shift in the realised trophic niche but in Batesian mimicry in an ant-eating spider | journal=Scientific Reports | volume=10 | number=1250 | page=1250 | doi=10.1038/s41598-020-58281-3 | pmid=31988373 | pmc=6985134 | doi-access=free }}
• {{cite journal | last=Prószyński | first=Jerzy | year=2017 | title=Pragmatic classification of the World's Salticidae (Araneae) | journal=Ecologica Montenegrina | volume=12 | pages=1–133 | doi=10.37828/em.2017.12.1 | author-link=Jerzy Prószyński| doi-access=free}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Richman | first1=David B. | last2=Jackson | first2=Robert R. | title=A review of the ethology of jumping spiders (Araneae, Salticidae) | journal= Bulletin of the British Arachnology Society | year=1992 | volume=9 | number=2 | pages=33–37}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Wesołowska | first1=Wanda | last2=Szűts | first2=Tamás | year=2001 | title=A New Genus of Ant-Like Jumping Spiders from Africa (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=Annales Zoologici | volume=51 | number=4 | pages=523–528 | author-link1=Wanda Wesołowska}}
• {{cite journal | last=Wesołowska | first=Wanda | year=2009 | title=A revision of the spider genus Mexcala Peckham and Peckham, 1902 (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=Genus | volume=20 | number=1 | pages=149–186 | url= https://archive.org/details/genus-0867-1710-20-149}}
• {{cite journal | last=Wiśniewski | first=Konrad | title=Over 40 years with jumping spiders: on the 70th birthday of Wanda Wesołowska | journal=Zootaxa | volume=4899 | number=1 | year=2020 | pages=5–14 | doi=10.11646/zootaxa.4899.1.3 | pmid=33756825 | s2cid=232337200}}

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{{Taxonbar|from=Q2633125}}

Category:Salticidae

Category:Arthropods of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Category:Arthropods of Malawi

Category:Arthropods of Tanzania

Category:Spiders of Africa

Category:Spiders described in 2009

Category:Taxa named by Wanda Wesołowska